1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to methods and systems for securely reconfiguring a multi-node system.
2. Background of the Related Art
Compute nodes may be scaled together and work together as a single multi-node system. The multi-node system boots using the basic input output system (BIOS) of only one of the compute nodes. Typically, the compute node having the most recent version of the BIOS is used to boot the multi-node system, and this compute node is referred to as the primary node. Other compute nodes within the multi-node system are referred to as secondary nodes.
Such a multi-node system may be subject to a malicious attack in which the attacker causes the multi-node system to boot from an old firmware version that contains known vulnerabilities. Such an effort to exploit the vulnerabilities of an older version of BIOS may be referred to as a “rollback attack.” While a rollback attack may be attempted by merely replacing a newer version of the BIOS on the primary node with an older version of BIOS, there are known methods to prevent an unauthorized update of the BIOS code to an older version. However, a rollback attack on a multi-node system may also be carried out by reconfiguring a compute node having an older version of BIOS to serve as the primary node and a compute node having a newer version of BIOS to serve as a secondary node. During the next boot of the multi-node system, the system will then boot using the older version of BIOS rather than the newer version of BIOS.